Freedom
by Kirin Lemonade
Summary: FE7 AU: a modern day oneshot, where Sain is a free running champion and his friend Kent needs to let off steam. R&R please, I'd appreciate the criticism.


Freedom

"Alright Sain, teach me." Kent muttered.

Kent was a serious, hardworking man with cinnamon hair, high up in Ostia Ltd. – a company that manufactures Kevlar body armour and the armour for vehicles, their main buyer being the Ministry of Defence. He is the secretary for the head of the company, Hector Ostia – a man who strikes an imposing figure and has a brash personality, that often rubbed people up the wrong way, but few could doubt his skill. Kent had worked his way up the administrative side of the company to the well-paid, steady job he had kept for the last three years. He was only 27, but none could say he was not up to the job.

Kent's best friend was his complete opposite. Sain was a few months older that Kent, and did not have what could be described as a steady job. During secondary school, both men participated in sports regularly and had won many trophies in running and gymnastics in school. Kent's participation in sport lessened in university as he found his studies more pressing than other activities, whereas Sain had the opposite attitude, as well as a high interest in the social activities during his short time in university.

Sain dropped out of his degree in sport sciences after a chance meeting with Hanna, a girl who was a member of the local free running and skater group and introduced the man to the scene. For four years he lived rough, either out in a tent, once or twice squatting in unused buildings and crashed at people's houses. During that time he utilized his strength, speed and flexibility from his teenage years to become a practitioner of a variety of street sports, focusing mostly on free running. Often when he crashed at people's houses he went on the internet to learn new tricks to endlessly practice later. He also used the internet to find out where the best places were to free run, often backpacking his way across Britain to meet and train with other free runners, even spending some time with the British free running team, 3RUN. After borrowing enough money, he managed to fly to America to participate in an international free running competition and won, earning a hefty prize of half a million dollars. He proved to be a massive hit with the Americans – "Must be my British charm!" he told Kent not long after he won, and MTV offered him four million to do a series on his life so far, along with another series on how to free run responsibly and safely.

The brunette had turned from some guy from Britain who regularly went to the Jobcentre and caused minor trouble to an underground superstar whom the Americans adored and the British were a little bit bemused that they managed to produce such a person. Kent was both proud and jealous – Sain had money, access to any woman he ever wanted and fame. Kent wasn't exactly hurting for money but a little extra wouldn't hurt...the fame didn't matter to him but he had missed out on a chance for love. Lyndis Caelin – preferred to be called Lyn - was the CEO of Caelin Industries, a family-run company based in America that made military cars for the Ministry of Defence. During the time of negotiations over the acquisition of Caelin Industries, Kent and Lyn often spoke. Over the few months, Kent had slowly developed a number of unknown but very interesting feelings for the strong American woman. These feelings got unknowingly trampled on when Kent accidently walked in on Lyn and Hector engaged in a very passionate tryst in Hector's office.

After this incident, Kent decided to go see his best friend. Sain was now living in the same city as Kent, in one of the flats in the centre of the city, whereas Kent had to live a little further out in an overpriced studio flat. And so it was that a week after the incident, Kent was in Sain's flat, having a long talk that was long overdue. Eventually, Sain persuaded the normally uptight redhead to try freerunning to get Lyn out of his system.

"Kent, you're still a size 9?" Sain yelled from his small room dedicated to shoes and skater memorabilia – _What straight man has need of a room for shoes? _Kent thought to himself. "Erm, yes..." Sain threw a pair of red and black trainers over to the redhead, who caught one but dropped the other. He noticed on the bottom of them was a scuffed and scratched metal plate under the instep of the sole. "Why is there metal on this shoe?" Kent asked curiously. "Oh, they're soap shoes. They're for grinding on rails." Sain answered, pulling on his own blue and black soap shoes with similarly scuffed plating and worn soles. "Before we go, I better check on Jem. Oh, and put my headband on."

Jem was, as Kent often joked, the only faithful woman that Sain would ever have. She was a tabby cat, not very old. He had found her as a kitten in a box in one of the alleys near his flat. He heard her mewing as he went past one day, and as he said to anyone who asked, "That was when I fell in love with the darling creature!" Now she was a happy, slightly pudgy cat who often sat on people's laps and snoozed.

Sain returned from his room, and critically looked Kent up and down. "Your outfit'll have to do." Kent was told to wear loose comfortable clothes, so he wore the old t-shirt and slightly baggy cloth shorts he wore to the gym three times a week. Sain on the other hand, wore a green vest top and denim shorts, a black headband to keep his unruly hair out of his eyes. Sain grabbed a backpack that sat by his front door and signalled for Kent to start moving. The pair left quietly, Kent noting how trainer-like the shoes were despite the robust plating he could feel around his feet.

They walked to the nearest public multi-storey car park that had a lot of low walls – only about three foot high, found a floor that was relatively unoccupied and Sain set his bag down on one side. He emptied the stuff out of his pockets and took his vest top off, revealing a well-defined but not bulky set of muscles, lean and tough. The competition winner took several steps back to build up speed and pointed over at the other side of the car park floor.

Sain ran, his hair and the ends of his headband flying out behind him. The first divider wall he reached he jumped cleanly, twisted in midair to land on a near ground-level bar and slid down it on the metal plates of his shoes. At the end of the bar was another divider wall, which Sain vaulted over and started grinding the next bar, changing the way he was facing. Kent watched, amazed. Despite having seen Sain's performances online and on television, it did not compare to seeing it in reality. The man's normally casual demeanour carefully hid his exceptional talent. Sain did not treat the obstacles like obstacles, more as help from one point to the next. He flowed like water over the barriers, inexorable and unchanging in his path.

The performance lasted a minute, ending when Sain did a back flip over the last divider and rolled backwards near the wall at the edge of the car park. "Now you try!" He yelled to the redhead. Kent frowned, but took the few steps back to get the extra running distance, and ran. Instead of just leaping over the first wall like Sain did, Kent's old gymnastics training kicked in and he grabbed the wall and entered a handstand. His experienced friend looked curiously on, wondering what the man might do now. Kent held the pose for a second, and then let himself fall over the other side, bending his knees as soon as he hit the floor. Recovering quickly, he ran to the next barrier. Instead of using the wall to help get over the wall, he arced his jump, twisting in the air to go over without coming into contact with the stone divider. Kent grinned, enjoying this new way to traverse urban terrain. He cleared the rest of the barriers by back flips and somersaults, finishing not far from where Sain stood. "Not bad, my friend. Not bad." Sain grinned; rather proud that Kent was still as good as he was back in school.

They went back to the other side of the car park to retrieve Sain's backpack and vest top, the owner stuffing the top into the bag, then the pair started ascending the stairs through the railings. Sain used the two horizontally placed bars to his advantage, lifting himself over the upward angled bar on the top of the stairs, grabbing the top bar of the flat part of the railings then passing through the gap in the turn to get to the landing between flights of stairs, slightly marred by the backpack catching the railings. Kent managed to imitate this, a little clumsily but didn't hurt himself or fall. Eventually they got to the roof of the car park. Together, they looked over the wall to see the urban landscape before them, a mix of grey stone, red brick, shining metal and reflective glass in right-angled harmony, while the late summer sun shone down on the never-stopping city.

"It's beautiful..." Kent murmured. Sain nodded. "Every city I've been to, the best view is off a car park rooftop. Even New York, believe it or not. The Empire state building's view is nothing compared to the car park five minutes away. Maybe it's because I have to work to get there rather than pressing a lift button." Sain smiled. Kent grinned back. "Thanks Sain, you've really cheered me up. And I will take you up on your earlier offer." "So you will come out drinking with me tonight? Winning!" Sain punched the air in happiness. Kent smiled at his friend's antics. "Let me go back to my flat to get more appropriate clothing at least." Sain placed an arm around Kent's shoulders. "For you my friend, anything. In fact, I will come with you. Then we go back to mine to give you the chance to prepare for the night of your life! ...and check on Jem." Kent laughed. "Alright Sain, let's go." And they ran from their vantage point to the top of the stairwell, where they slid down the flights of stairs on the soap shoes instead of walking.

Around halfway down, the pair grinded down the railing of a flight of stairs while two people walked up them. Shouts of annoyance were heard, then silence only interrupted by the sound of metal on metal. Kent turned around to see who the two were before he went on the next railing and he stared straight at his boss and his old crush. Hector was confused and shocked, whereas Lyn looked like she was thinking...then shouted out –"Sain! Sain Taylor? Oh my god!" Kent raised an eyebrow and decided to leave now, before there were any awkward questions from Hector or boring questions about Sain from Lyn. Work-Kent could handle that on Monday. Kent was free today, free from the chains of work, status and love.

Today, the world was his playground, and he was free to do as he pleased.


End file.
